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Russell in as WI go for wash

Jamaican Andre Russell, a recent star in the Limacol Caribbean Premier League T20 tournament, has been added to the West Indies cricket team for the third and final Dhaka Bank Cup limited overs clash against Bangladesh at Warner Park in St Kitts starting at 2.30 pm today.

The West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB) selection panel added the all rounder to the squad, which means no one from the team which has taken a 2-0 lead in the three-match series has been left out.

The West Indies narrowly won the opening game in St George’s Grenada by three wickets, after at one stage being 34 for five, in pursuit off 218 runs for victory.

They then showed up at the same venue two days later, and completely outplayed the visitors—bowling them out for 70—to claim an emphatic 177-run win.

The venue for today’s match is different. It is the smallest international cricket venue. The pitch here is not as sluggish as the one in Grenada and fans who have been bitten by the CPL bug here, will no doubt pack the 9,000 seater venue for this day/night clash.

Master off-spinner Sunil Narine is hoping that his teammates continue the good work started so far in the series.

“We cannot afford to rest at this point in time. We have won two matches in a row and we have the momentum to go forward. We are not going to rest, we need to win this final match because we have the Test series to take care off after and we want to go into that series confident.

“We recently played T20 cricket in St Kitts so we have experience of the facilities, which is good. We are going to use our knowledge of the ground to benefit us because the opposition would not know much about the conditions there.’

West Indies captain Dwayne Bravo also sounded confident saying: “We have played well in this series. Even in the first game our bowlers were spot on and it was the same in the second match. We as batters, still need to improve and this is yet another chance for us to do that. St Kitts is a good batting surface and once we bat well and give our bowlers something to work with, I can’t see Bangladesh getting the better of us here.”

Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim says his team needs a lot of work especially in the batting department.

“We have not looked the part as batsmen in this series so far. We played a warm-up match going into the first game and we have been here for a while, so it is about time that the guys adapt and play good cricket. The West Indies have a very good bowling unit and they will always put us under pressure but we just cannot sit by and allow them to continue to dominate. We have to come out fighting and I believe in my players and I am sure they will be looking to turn things around quickly.”